British Psychoanalytic Association

14/12/2025

"We bring our patterns with us wherever we go, into every relationship, and we necessarily and inevitably bring them into the therapy relationship or the psychoanalytic relationship, because that’s a relationship too. It’s not a matter of choice. It simply happens. It happens everywhere. The therapist doesn’t do anything to make it happen. This is the human condition. We bring our patterns. The thing that makes psychotherapy, psychotherapy, and not just another relationship, is that we do something different. What we do that’s different is, instead of just repeating our same old patterns with a new person, we create the conditions where it becomes possible to notice the patterns, to recognize them, to put words to them, and understand them and discuss them. Out of that experience and that understanding comes the freedom to do things differently, to not have to repeat the same patterns. I always make a point, is that true for everyone? Does everybody need therapy? Well, everybody repeats earlier characteristic patterns. For some people, those patterns allow you to live a satisfying and rewarding life, with pleasure and connection and meaning and intimacy. So if that’s the case you’re still repeating early patterns but that’s what it means to be human. However, some people are living out patterns that cause distress or limitation, that get in the way of living the life they could lead, and that’s what we work with in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.”

“We bring our patterns with us wherever we go, into every relationship, and we necessarily and inevitably bring them into the therapy relationship or the psychoanalytic relationship, because that’s a relationship too. It’s not a matter of choice. It simply happens. It happens everywhere. The t...

07/12/2025

Interested in psychoanalysis? Our popular Introductory Lectures series will return in January 2026. The series introduces fundamental psychoanalytic ideas and explores a range of topics in greater depth. Presentations are delivered by BPA psychoanalysts and are followed by a group discussion.

Lectures take place on Wednesday evenings, 8-9.30 pm UK time, from January to July 2026 (with half-term breaks).

Find out more here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/training/pre-training/introductory-courses/

03/12/2025

"Before you can feel truly grateful you may have to feel envious, in need, and vulnerable, just as I did in my psychoanalysis session. You may need to develop the capacity to tolerate your hate and rage and despair and all sorts of feelings that are not nice. And of course, you have to have something to feel grateful for."

Transformative gratitude occurs within sincere relationships, but building those links is not always an easy process

01/12/2025

Drawing on Brown’s Orkney-rooted poetics and his injunction to “carve the runes / then be content with silence,” our next Poetic Mind seminar (Sat 13 December) will explore the shared paradox of poetry and psychoanalysis: that words must be shaped and spoken, yet also relinquished so that silence may transform them.

Discussant Raine Geoghegan will join BPA psychoanalyst David Morgan.

The event is offered both online via Zoom and in person in London.

Find out more and book your tickets here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/events/bpa-event-the-poetic-mind-seminar-carve-the-runes-then-be-content-with-silence/

26/11/2025

Our Pre-Foundation Course, running from January 2026, offers an introduction to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and the opportunity to explore how this applies in the consulting room and to everyday life.

The course is aimed at those interested in an introduction to psychoanalysis. No previous knowledge or clinical experience is necessary although people from the mental health professions do also attend. This course works well alongside the theory and discussion provided by the Introductory Lecture Series.

Find out more here:

The Pre-Foundation Course offers an introduction to contemporary psychoanalytic theory and the opportunity to explore how this applies in the consulting room and to everyday life. The Pre-FC is aimed at those interested in an introduction to psychoanalysis. No previous knowledge or clinical experien...

24/11/2025

"At first glance, psychoanalysis and the worlds of critical psychiatry and critical psychology look like strange bedfellows. One has often been caricatured as navel-gazing for the well-to-do, while the other has been forged in the language of rights, struggle, and collective action.

Yet we have come to see psychoanalysis as a strong ally in restoring dignity, depth, and meaning to mental health practice. It offers a way of working that connects lived phenomenology with history, injustice, and the social worlds we inhabit. This allows clinicians to move past symptom chasing and offer a path toward insight into one’s life, with understanding, humility, and compassion."

Explore this series of articles here:

A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary exploration of class and labor in psychoanalytic thinking and the psychoanalytic professional field.

21/11/2025

In this podcast episode, Argentinian psychoanalyst Mariano Horenstein asks: How do we listen to the language of sexuality today?

Through an exploration of the relationship between language and psychoanalysis and the historical transformation of the clinical paradigms that have shaped psychoanalytic listening to date: hysteria, in its origins, with its enigmatic language surrounded by silences, which inaugurated the analytical device; psychosis, which after the Second World War led to the expansion of the field, forcing us to give voice and testimony where the absence of repression predominated; the author shows us the trans clinic as a new paradigm that is currently emerging, not only because it requires the analyst to be heard, but also because it bursts onto the scene with its own voice and avatars of inclusive language, directly challenging psychoanalytic theory and practice, and thus bringing sexuality back to the centre of the psychoanalytic stage and debate.

Listen here:

"X". Calle Alcalá, Madrid. Photograph by Ana M. Martín Solar. With the evocative title “Once Again, the Mystery”, the Argentine psychoanalyst Mariano Horenstein poses the equally enigmatic question: How do we listen to the language of sexuality today? Through an exploration of the relationship...

18/11/2025

Join us on Saturday, 13 December, to learn more about the poetry of George Mackay Brown and the psychoanalytic imagination. Discussant Raine Geoghegan will join BPA psychoanalyst David Morgan.

Drawing on Brown’s Orkney-rooted poetics and his injunction to “carve the runes / then be content with silence,” the seminar will explore the shared paradox of poetry and psychoanalysis: that words must be shaped and spoken, yet also relinquished so that silence may transform them.

The event is offered both online via Zoom and in person in London.

Find out more and book your tickets here: https://www.psychoanalysis-bpa.org/events/bpa-event-the-poetic-mind-seminar-carve-the-runes-then-be-content-with-silence

16/11/2025

“The similarity between Freud and Kohelet [Ecclesiastes] is that both of them believe that there’s no overarching totalistic system that integrates all the disparate experiences that one has. You have that, Freud says, in psychotics, and you have that in philosophers, and you have that in devout people – they look for systematicity. They try to cram everything into a framework of meaning. Both Freud and Kohelet reject that. They don’t have a worldview in that way. However, in order to flourish, you do need a meaning-giving, affect-integrating and action-guiding set of considerations. You can’t just be out there like a windowless monad floating around. There are some core beliefs and values that anchor a person, that give them footing. So there’s a difference between a totalizing worldview and a workable framework that’s open to critique.”

Listen here:

“The similarity between Freud and Kohelet [Ecclesiastes] is that both of them believe that there’s no overarching totalistic system that integrates all the disparate experiences that one has. You have that, Freud says, in psychotics, and you have that in philosophers, and you have that in devout...

14/11/2025

Our popular Introductory Lectures series will be running again from January 2026! The series introduces fundamental psychoanalytic ideas and explores a range of topics in greater depth. Delivered by BPA psychoanalysts, presentations are followed by a group discussion.

Lectures take place on Wednesday evenings, 8-9.30 pm UK time, from January to July 2026 (with half-term breaks).

Find out more here:

Psychoanalysis: Key Concepts and a Contemporary Perspective This series of lectures introduces fundamental psychoanalytic ideas and explores a range of topics in greater depth. Delivered by BPA Psychoanalysts, presentations are followed by a group discussion. The series is organised so as to build u...

07/11/2025

In this blog post from IPA International Psychoanalytical Association, Sara Ekenstierna argues that humanity's tragic yet creative struggle with inner conflict and duality holds the key to both our suffering and potential for transformation.

Read here: https://ipa.world/ipa/Dev/News_Stories/Blogs/Blog_Pages/The_Human_Tragicomedy.aspx

03/11/2025

"Some time ago, I realized that there was such a thing for me as experiencing my patients as being friends, but they were psychoanalytic friends. It was a psychoanalytic friendship that was quite unique and unlike any other friendship. I think that’s what people are talking about when they write about psychoanalytic love. It’s not love like any other kind of relationship, because the psychoanalytic relationship is so unique. And I feel the same way about psychoanalytic parenting. It’s like it’s close to mentoring, but it’s different because the structure of the relationship is different than from a mentor or an esteemed and loved teacher. It really is helping somebody with the whole process of development and helping them grow, mature, and become more comfortable with themselves and to know themselves better. That seems to me the essence of parenting, and I don’t think we should feel defensive about thinking about it that way. That doesn’t seem to me that it’s my counter-transference in needing to be a good mother, a good father, a good parent to my patients.”

Listen here:

“Some time ago, I realized that there was such a thing for me as experiencing my patients as being friends, but they were psychoanalytic friends. It was a psychoanalytic friendship that was quite unique and unlike any other friendship. I think that’s what people are talking about when they write...